TP-Link is the latest brand of routers that TM is giving to UniFi users. Judging from posts here, there's an awful lot of confusion as to which model is better. So far we have the C5v2, C1200v1 & C7. The C7 seems to be quite rare and I haven't seen a C5v1 yet. So if you have one of those, please let us know.

Here's what I have found so far. I have access to the C5v2 and C1200v1 so I'll expand on this as time permits.

Router Bootup Time

Archer C1200 v1
1:21:05 Router Reboot
1:24:15 DynDNS Updated
1:26:45 Webgui Login
Time: 5 mins 40 secs

Archer C5 v2
1:37:00 Router Reboot
1:37:45 PPP Connected
1:37:47 DynDNS Updated
1:38:05 DHCP Responding
1:39:00 Webgui Login
Time: 2 mins 0 secs

Not 100% accurate, I was testing remotely so I had to wait for dyndns TTL of 60 secs. I think the C5v2 is already up at 1 min 5 secs as its DHCP server starts responding to lan/wifi devices at that point in time.

CPU
Maybe this explains it. CPU data from wikidevi.com.

Archer C1200 v2.x (no data for v1.x) uses BCM47189 ARM Cortex A7 900 MHz (2x2 MIMO despite the 3rd antenna)
Other routers which uses this SoC: ASUS RT-AC1200G

Archer C5 v2.x uses BCM47081 ARM Cortex A9 800 MHz (2x2 MIMO)
Other routers which uses this SoC: Linksys EA6350(Time's 500mbps router), D-Link DIR-868L rev A1 & ASUS RT-AC56S

Archer C5 v1 uses QCA9558 720 MHz but only 2 out of 3 possible wlan chains (2x2 MIMO).
Other routers which uses this SoC: Archer C7, Mikrotik hAP AC, TL-WR1043ND, TL-WDR7500.

Archer C7 uses QCA9558 720 MHz and all 3 wlan chains (3x3 MIMO).

Performance
https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=84658440
Fellow forumer reported here of C1200 hanging during torrents. Possibly running out of ram or memory leak. Looking worse for the C1200.

Quick Summary
C5v1/C7 > C5v2 > C1200

In case you're wondering the D-Link DIR-850L uses the Realtek RTL8197D CPU. Same as the DIR-815. Not great.

This post has been edited by soonwai: Apr 25 2017, 03:01 PM

Reserved for future expansion...

Interesting....i always wonder if the newer tplink much better or not

C1200 i not touching yet but from your testing result seem slow booting up overall that other.. interesting...

Archer C5 is by far the best wifi router I have ever used. Very stable, good speed and very good coverage. Most importantly, no reboot for whatever reasons needed during operation.

Good to hear! Do you have the C5v1 or v2?

V2.......

I'm also using c5 v2, i reboot it only when some odd situations occur, and that's quite rare, usually after unifi maintenance, which is quite frequently recently

Agreed. I tested tplink c5 and asus ac55uhp. Performance wise ac55uhp n c5 are about the same. Wireless throughput and coverage.

Only price and extra features differs them hehe

Bro mind to do some research & share us your view on asus router price ranging frm rm200-rm600?
Give u 3 LIKEs

well performance wise i guess its about the same more or less tho.....
currently using ac68u. same wireless coverage and throughput as other ac1900 which is half the price. Even the USB 3.0 port doesn't impressed me much. Speed are so-so only.

if need no extra features can always go for cheaper brand.

But C7 has V1, V2 and V3........TM normally provide which version for C7?

V2 I guess.

I am using C7 V2. So far, it never makes problem and function well without any interruptions. I bought the router last 4 months ago. C7 is the best router so far I ever used.

P/s: I am UniFi Advance 50 user here. Currently waiting for my speed upgrade to 100 Mbps.

This post has been edited by Jjuggler: Apr 19 2017, 03:01 PM

I'm not so much into Asus routers though I'm currently using a RT-N12D1 (was mine but now my neighbours) and I have an old RT-N16. Sorry.

Ok np ty bro. Btw mikrotik hp ac come with dual band or single band wifi?

It's dual band, tri stream.
https://routerboard.com/RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT

ty bro will study more on this model

Actually all you need to know is in the name.
RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT
RB - RouterBoard so you know it's a Mikrotik.
9 - Form factor, boring beige box.
6 - 6 physical ports (5 GBe + 1 SFP)
2 - 2 radios 2.4 & 5Ghz
U - has a USB port
i - has PoE out
G - has Gigabit ports
S - has an SFP port
- - breathing space
5HacT - 5Ghz High power AC Triple chain
2HnT - 2.4Ghz High power N Triple chain

There you go.

Eh bro the PoE is for what?Also setting interface user friendly or not?Thinking of buying one to replace the *beep* dir 850L

PoE is Power over Ethernet so you can send power to another device over the same ethernet cable. The 2nd device no need power adaptor. Makes cabling easier.

Mikrotik is quite intimidating because it presents a lot of information. Just need to ignore what you don't need. There's also a quick setup wizard now called QuickSet which makes things easier. You can have a look at my UniFi setup guide to see how easy it is. Link in my sig below.

Here's a demo router that you can play with.
http://demo.mt.lv

You can use ssh/telnet for command line or the web interface or download winbox.exe from https://www.mikrotik.com/download.

Winbox is a Windows app for configuring the routers. It's very fast. It doesn't look pretty though.

million thanks bro

Bro i notice u set ur router to wifi 2ghz bgn only.Actually which frequency standard best in terms of speed,range & stability?
No 5ghz wifi?

Best is 2.4Ghz N, frequency I set to auto and let the AP choose.

I have a DLink 5Ghz AP in my office. The rest of the house is covered by the Mikrotik's 2.4Ghz. No 5Ghz for Mikrotik. Actually I have a hAP AC lite but haven't set it up yet.

Bro i notice mikrotik hap ac lite lan 1 is for poe in & lan 5 for poe out.The unifi lan cable from the modem connect to which port of mikrotik lan ports?
https://www.lelong.com.my/mikrotik-wifi-rou...8-06-Sale-P.htm
Rm255 good buy?Now i worry i dont know how to do the setting to connect to internet

This post has been edited by Chriss: Apr 21 2017, 01:44 AM

Normal setup, for example if you follow my guide, Lan1 is the WAN port. The modem will connect to Lan1 but you can change that.

Let's say you're powering the Mikrotik from a PoE switch then it must go into Lan1 (PoE In). Therefore you cannot use Lan1 for the modem. All you do is setup the Mikrotik so that the WAN port is Lan2, ie: cable from the modem goes into Lan2

I think the price is OK but that's the hAP AC Lite. It's the little brother to the hAP AC. It only has 100mbps ports and single stream for 5Ghz. The WiFi transmission is also not very powerful.

Bro which port to use for connection to the main router(the modem which the main router connected)

Connect to modem or router?

Assuming hAP AC default configuration where Lan1 is gateway and Lan2-5 are switched.

Case 1: using hAP AC as router
modem --> hAP AC LAN1

Case 2: not using hAP AC as router
modem --> TMRouter --> hAP AC LAN2-5

Hap ac lite as 2nd router. So i have to connect my hap ac lite lan 2-5(either port) to tm dir850L router modem lan 2 port. Correct?

In this setup the hAP AC Lite is not a functioning as a router but as an AP. And you're right, hAP AC lite Lan2-5 to DIR-850L Lan1-3, assuming Lan4 is used for HyppTV.

Later when you're more comfortable with the Mikrotik, you can reconfigure Lan1 so that you can use all 5 ports on the hAP AC Lite.

Thanks bro i will configure it next week after my out station trip. Will ask for your help if encounter any setting related confusion. Yes if it's good will buy another unit for my new house network setup

Well, if I were you, I'd use the hAP AC Lite as the main router. It'll be a waste just to use it as an access point.

any update from the tplink c1200 slow booting fix?

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=84658440

A report of C1200 hanging during torrents. Possibly running out of ram or memory leak. Looking worse for the C1200.

Yes, I agreed. It was such a good spot on from you!
But I can live with it. I don't torrent much.

did tplink here any feedback of them?

Nothing posted here yet. Might take some time for TPLink. Hope they can prioritise cos should be more and more C1200 users in Malaysia.

more and more mikrotik hap ac lite user too
Reason for my main router of choice is because my neighbour share my unifi pro 100 ,will swap main router duty with my mikrotik after i play around & get familiar with its setting 1st. Also takes time for me to do the setting for my neighbour because they miracast to their smart tv

This post has been edited by Chriss: Apr 26 2017, 12:04 AM

your boot up time problem may be is due to your Pc problem, my tplink C1200 boot up time untill can browse internet is only 2min 5 s ,after that work vry great like never ever before as compare to the old Dlink 850 router before unifi package upgrade, tp link c1200 wifi coverage also very good can cover my whole house until kitchen and garden outsite.

This post has been edited by desperado22: Apr 26 2017, 10:21 AM

But not so good for upstairs. I have to rely on homeplug...

Fair enough, but my PC is 15km from the C1200 wor. Finally we have a good report about the C1200. What hardware version and firmware is your C1200? Is yours the 2 antenna or 3 antenna version?

This post has been edited by soonwai: Apr 26 2017, 12:16 PM

eh i tot c1200 got 3 antennas. got another version?

Today I have another problem, after fixed the torrent issue freezing my C1200, now I have another issue.

The setup is like this, I have a laptop connected the RJ-45 cable to the C1200 network port and running KODI on the laptop.

Now, when I try to stream movie content from my android phone, after a while, the router hangs, WiFi connection and Ethernet connection still show connected though. And I can also ping my laptop pc.

I need to press the reset button to restart the router to resume .

So how?

Just installed DD-WRT and it's much better now.

We subscribe to 3x TM Biz uniFi 100Mbps plan. It supply us with 3x TP-Link C1200 (3 antenna) v1.0.

Didn't upgrade the firmware, use what's given but modify a bit settings to what I need.

Note. I connect all 3x C1200 to a pfSense firewall machine. So,

1. Disable all radio (wireless) cause don't need.
2. Disable SPI firewall cause don't need.
3. NAT Boost is enable by default.
4. Change the default IP address.
5. Disable DHCP server.

Already near 1 month using never turn off or restart. So far very stable. CPU usage will jump to 100% sometime but doesn't slow down the performance. Speedtest result 95Mbps download and 49Mbps upload. Download Steam games can max all the line.

Best regard.

Use c1200 for fews day but can't cover my whole house. Router at ground floor. 4th floor no signal. Then change to mi router also same. Ordered linksys ea7500. Will c how.

Contact TPLink on slow boot up issue, here is the unfriendly feedback from engineering end, I provided c1200 and archer c2 v 5 video and show them the boot up time at 1 min and 4.5 min respectively.

Here are the bug found from my end
- whitelist setting, after reboot . All permitted device unable to internet
- guest bandwidth limit not incorporate
- in-proper coding, interfere with router start-up

Please proceed for cisco and asus RG, tplink is fairly unreliable

Anybody flash singapore firmware into c1200? will it work appreciate your test end as i m away the country atm.

Dear Customer,
This model needs to reboot longer than other device because it needs to load the high CPU, it is not a hardware or firmware issue. I hope you can understand this, this model is designed to take several minutes to reboot.But it will not affect the function of this router . Please do not worry about it.

Furthermore ,if you insist this device is not working properly ,you can contact our service center in Malaysia and let them to repair or replace the device for you:
Address:：Lot 4-20, 4th floor, Plaza Low Yat, off Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur
Working time: From Mon-Sun 10:30am—7:30pm
Contact number：+60 321 414 358

Your kind cooperation will be highly appreciate , have a good day!

This post has been edited by xiaochabor: May 4 2017, 04:16 PM

Hey darling,able to provide the ddr firmware u flash into c1200

You made my day, 4th story house and you placing your rg in the first floor. How you expect the signal soar till the top floor mate.. You need AP and RG signal is transmission downwards not upwards

My bad, was thinking of something else when I typed that. C1200 - 3 antennas, just 1 version.

Why my C1200 CPU is most of the time 100%?
I don't have heavy streaming...

How many wifi devices you tap into? can do you screenshot with LAN connection as well?

I disable WiFi on my C1200 and most of the time the CPU will be at 100%. Using UniFi 100Mbps Biz. I have 3 of C1200 here and they are the same, CPU most of the time is 100% (not all the time). Anyway it doesn't seem to create any problem. No slow down or hang. I never switch off or restart those router. Quite reliable despite the 100% CPU load.

A friend told me that turning off NAT Boost will low down the CPU load. But I do not recommend that because even high CPU load the router still working just fine.

Best regard.

This post has been edited by myandylai: May 8 2017, 05:01 AM

Something is wrong.

Usually a router's CPU utilization is 0% when there is not much network activity going on.

This is a snapshot of my Huawei WS880 dual-CPU utilization just now.

I have never seen it exceed 15% per CPU, even under heavy torrenting and video streaming.

It's not all the time but most of the time when there are traffic.

I manage to low down by disabling some features. I don't know maybe the CPU is bad or a firmware bug.

Disabled
1. USB sharing feature. It's enable on default even you don't put a flash drive.
2. SPI firewall.

I still keep the NAT Boost feature on. Although my friend recommend to turn it off and it will reduce CPU load. Anyway now I can see it's around 5-20% loading without traffic and only me working inside the firmware.

I don't recommend people that own this router to mess around if you don't understand what you're doing. Don't fix something that's not broken. It still works just fine with the CPU loading a bit high.



Best regard.

If you consistently encounter 100% CPU utilization even during periods of normal network activity,
it can only mean two things.

1. Badly-coded firmware
2. Failing or defective hardware.

Then Badly-coded firmware maybe. I have 3 newly receive unit. Cannot be all 3 with defective hardware. Anyway can make the CPU high load under control by disabling some feature like I mention on the upper post.

Best regard.

Like I said earlier, "something is wrong".

I agree with what you say.

How to set the dualband 2.4 and 5g to get most efficient signal.? Is using one ssd name or different it..

Use a wifi analyzer to see the least congested channel for both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band and set your wifi channel there. You can use different names for the 2.4 and 5, and I recommend doing that, as the 5 have much lower range than 2.4, and not all device support the 5.

You means change the chanel that less ppl use will be better is it? Example: if 3 ppl using chanel 1, then change to other chanel that nobody use..

I set it as same ssid. Newer devices are capable of band steering. Meaning if u are close, it'll change to 5 if u are far it'll automatically change to 2.4

Well in any case u can try using same or different and see whatever suits u.

For additional AP i also set it as same ssid but different channel

1 SSID to rule them all
LoL

Yes. That's it. I would recommend Channel 1, 6, or 11, depending on your area, as they are the only channels that does not interfere with one another.

No use.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry in the neighbourhood who knows also use channels 1, 6 and 11.

Use 5Ghz, channel 149, perfecto!

Even worse, routers that defaults to 40Mhz bandwidth.

In most cases, you'll have to compromise for a channel with the lowest signal strength coming from other routers in the area.

I have to agree with the badly-coded firmware. The fact that it takes 5 mins to boot-up is a good indication. (TP-Link says that's normal ) The Asus RT-AC1200G+ uses the same CPU as the C1200 and doesn't seem to have that problem.

The Broadcom BCM47189 @ 900 MHz in the Archer C1200 is quite a respectable processor.

It would be very difficult to max it out even under very heavy loads.

Instantaneous 100% peaks are possible, but not consistently at 100%.

Yeah, the culprit is most probably badly coded firmware.

let' see tplink can flashable to 3rd party firmware to run?

The TP-Link Archer C1200 was only released in Feb 2017.

It is too new to be supported by DD-WRT.

Here is the list of TP-Link supported devices.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Suppo...Devices#TP-Link

It seems someone has done it but no link???

The DD-WRT firmware for the C1200 is not available yet.

See here for the list of TP-Link supported devices.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Suppo...Devices#TP-Link

Really?

Where did he get it from?

Is he talking about the C1200?

I am confused.

No idea, I searched but couldn't find any. Maybe lyt25_1234 can help us.

Lol. If you can't beat em', join em!

All 3 of the Archer C1200 CPU usage now working with lower CPU usage after disabling SPI firewall and USB Sharing. Lazy to check which one is the cause of high CPU load problem. But I don't need any of those feature anyway.

TP-Link Archer C1200 CPU Usage (YouTube)

Best regard.

It would be better if you telnet/ssh into the router and run 'top' command, then sort it by cpu usage by pressing "SHIFT + F", next press 'k' (small letter, not capital letter).
Then we can discover which process causes high cpu usage.

This confirms that the issue is with TP-Link's badly-coded firmware.

For comparison, here is a snapshot of my Huawei WS880 dual-core 800MHz Broadcom processor running Xwrt-Vortex firmware.

There are currently 7 devices connected to the router.

One with LAN cable, three on 2.4GHz and three on 5GHz.

Two of them are torrenting and one is streaming 1080p60fps video, the rest are surfing the web.

The total dual-core processor utilization is only a total of 10%, hardly breaking a sweat.

seems like archer c5 v2 dont support openwrt

Thats because it is not since long time ago haha. Only c5 v1 are supported.

And i dont think there's custom firmware for c1200 as well.

True.

It is really hard to get my Huawei WS880 to work above 20% utilization.

And I have 12 devices connected simultaneously.

FCC lockdown basically all 3rd-Party firmware is not support

- the router high CPU mostly interfere by USB Sharing
- anyone can reproduce issue to boost up quicker?

True. With the FCC lockdown, you will not see the TP-Link's new model Archer C1200 running DD-WRT.

Here is an extract of the news....

"Last month, Libre Planet—a free software community—raised the alarm that TP-Link, one of the largest router manufacturers, had begun locking down firmware in newly released routers.
As proof, Libre Planet pointed to a transcript of a support conversation.

In the chat, a TP-Link rep says that the lockdown—which blocks the installation of open source firmware—was a reaction to new FCC requirements.

That’s a problem, because alternative router software packages like DD-WRT are hugely popular. These tools provide more sophisticated features and faster security patches than manufacturers offer.

I contacted TP-Link and asked them to confirm whether their support chat rep was correct. The company directed us to a new FAQ page confirming the lockdown. The FAQ reads,

Why is TP-LINK limiting the functionality of its routers?

TP-LINK is complying with new FCC regulations that require manufacturers to prevent certain firmware customizations on wireless routers.”

https://www.wired.com/2016/03/way-go-fcc-no...ocking-routers/

If you mean TP-Link Acrher C1200, mine one boot up super slow. I once waited more then 5 minutes before Internet LED light on.

So I don't restart or shut off those router at all.

Best regard.

Anyone can share how you disabled the USB setting i see not button to disable it completely

No wonder the new TP-Link Archer C1200 is not on the DD-WRT support list.

I seldom care about CPU usage in router unless it's having problem. But since there were people talking about the issue then only I go check mine. It kind of not feeling easy when knowing your router CPU is always working at 100%. I feel the same. Anyway that's what given to me by TM and I am not going to replace it with ASUS (RM799 x 3 = RM 2397) so I do what I can to ease the problem. Now's the CPU usage is low enough for me. TP-Link Archer C1200 CPU Usage (YouTube)

BTW I have 60 clients connected all my Archer C1200 via Ethernet.

Best regard.

This post has been edited by myandylai: May 8 2017, 11:30 PM

lyt25_1234 he self proclaimed duck in DD-WRT Firmware on c1200, can you share us how you made it. I dont mind damage the router and get a replacement again , since is under warranty

This post has been edited by xiaochabor: May 8 2017, 11:27 PM